Kiwi PM's accent confuses US transcribers

A SPEECH by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key appears to have been lost in translation, with the US State Department mistakenly reporting him as saying New Zealand is looking forward to fighting more conflicts alongside the United States.

In his remarks, made alongside US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Rarotonga last week and recorded by AAP, Mr Key said: "New Zealand warmly supports the United States rebalancing towards the Asia-Pacific and we welcome the opportunities to co-operate further".

"In that context, we discussed our ongoing efforts to negotiate, alongside a number of other countries, a Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement."

However, either because of Mr Key's strong Kiwi accent or perhaps a dodgy recording, the US State Department transcript quoted Mr Key as saying "we welcome the opportunity to co-operate with the US in the next conflicts".

The same transcript, posted on the State Department's website, cited numerous other parts of Mr Key's speech as "inaudible".

A spokeswoman for Mr Key said his office would be seeking a correction.

Bloggers and social media users jumped on the original transcript, questioning Mr Key's choice of words, before the mistake was pointed out.

The online version of the US State Department's transcript has now been changed.